This fund will support people within lower socio-economic groups who currently participate in less than 30 minutes activity each week.

This includes those who are employed in ‘semi-routine’ jobs, like shop assistants, hairdressers and bus drivers; people in ‘routine’ jobs, like waiters, cleaners and building labourers. It also includes people who are long-term unemployed or have never been employed. They typically fall within the National Statistic Social-Economic Classification (or NS-SEC) groups 6-8.

The fund has 3 different funding options;

Funding option A: £2m will support larger projects from £25,000 up to a maximum of £500,000. This part of the fund will support projects aimed at inactive people who are in employment. They will be ordinary people and families who sometimes, or often, struggle to make ends meet. They can find it hard to build physical activity into their lives, or feel being active isn’t for them.

Funding option B: £1m will support projects between £25,000 and £100,000. This will focus on projects aimed at inactive people who are far less likely to have a steady income, or any income at all, and face more extreme disadvantage. They may also be facing other challenges, such as being at risk of offending or dealing with substance misuse.

Funding option C: We know that sometimes small amounts of money, especially for smaller local groups, can make a big difference, so 5% of the total fund (£150,000) will be used to fund smaller awards between £1,000 and £10,000. This can be used to support either of the two groups of people described above

The closing date for expressions of interest to option A and option B, and full applications to the small grant (option C) is 5pm on the 6th of November 2017.

Northumberland Sport are keen to support anyone interested in applying to any of the funding options and are particularly keen to promote the small grant option

Sport England has produced a funding prospectus which can be downloaded from the website.

They are also holding surgeries for anyone interested in applying to the fund. the surgeries can be booked on the sport England website and will be held in the following locations